


Lovely Souls

by springlove



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-06
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-12 00:25:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,258
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11725686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/springlove/pseuds/springlove
Summary: Having moved to a whole new city with no one but his dog as a companion, who would have thought that Jongdae’s first visit to the local vet would be so life changing?





	1. Man's Best Friend

It felt like a sauna. That’s the first thing Jongdae thought as he opened his eyes from his fitful slumber. He drew in a breath of hot stuffy air, the dog splayed out on top of his chest not helping in the slightest. “Aigo, get off of me.” He groaned, pushing the Great Pyrenees off of him. Unaffected, Aigo continued sleeping on the floor. Jongdae dragged himself out of bed to investigate the stifling heat and promptly tripped over one of the many boxes scattered along the floor. Peeking out his blinds he saw that the sun was just peeking over neighboring buildings.

It was just his luck that the air conditioner in Jongdae’s apartment stopped working the first night he moved in. He slid on some joggers and a T-shirt and peeked outside to discover it was just as suffocatingly hot in the hallway. Sighing, he shut the door and looked inside his fridge to see nothing but a large puddle of water in the bottom inside drawer and a flickering light. He forgot to go to the grocery the day before. Settling on some cheerios he had stuck in a random box, Jongdae sat down on a creaky chair. Since he didn’t have any milk he would have to eat them dry. 

After finishing his dry cereal, Jongdae decided to make the most of his day without actually having to touch the boxes littered around his room. That was a project he didn’t even want to think about tackling yet. He grabbed his wallet and Aigo’s leash.

“Aigo, come on buddy! You want to go for a walk?” he asked.

The ball of fluff looked up from his sprawled position on the floor and then promptly closed his eyes. There were no limits to Aigo’s laziness. Jongdae figured Aigo would be fine alone while he made a short run to the local grocery store. A man could only live so long on dry cereal and tap water. 

He tossed Aigo’s leash onto a little table near the door and shoved his wallet deep into his pocket. Walking into the apartment hallway he noticed that the air conditioner still hadn’t kicked in and the air was still stifling hot. He walked hastily down the hallway and through the lobby to escape the heat.   
The apartment wasn’t the nicest, but it was the best he could find that fit his budget and still allowed pets. There were almost none to choose from since so many banned the entry of animals. When Jongdae first walked in he noticed how dirty it was and a couple cockroaches, but it was nothing he couldn’t fix and it was worth it to have his furry companion with him. 

Stepping out of the apartment lobby, Jongdae inhaled the hot summer air. He thought about Aigo in the stuffy apartment and decided to make the trip as quick as possible so he could return and take Aigo out on a walk. The street was bustling with activity, cars packed in the street like sardines and people walking with a purpose down the sidewalk. 

Jongdae didn’t actually know where the grocery store was because the move had been a little last minute. The apartment Jongdae had planned to move into after looking at it online made him think that they allowed pets when they really did not. And of course they decided to let him know when he arrived to move in. Thankfully all his stuff was still in the moving truck and he could call the driver and have them reroute. 

Jongdae wasn’t too surprised though, he thought of himself as a bringer of bad luck. Ever since he was a child it seemed like bad luck followed him like a dark cloud, but he hoped that the large move would help change that. Aigo was special to Jongdae as his pet, but he also helped bring Jongdae good luck. Jongdae felt like he could take on the world whenever he had his fluffy buddy with him. 

The words “Lee’s Organic and Vegan Supplies” caught his eye as he was looking around for anything that looked grocery related. Jongdae couldn’t find anything else so he figured that this would have to do. He pushed open the glass door, a bell tinkling softly as it closed behind him. 

He grabbed a basket from the stack by the door and started walking down the aisle. He didn’t recognize a lot of the brands, probably since they were mostly organic and Jongdae was cheap as hell. The prices weren’t too bad though, so he start dropping some items into his basket. After making his way through the aisles and finding the foods he needed, he only had one thing left on his mental list of stuff to get. 

Jongdae strolled around to see if there was anyone who could help him and he saw a blonde head ducked over some boxes behind the counter.   
He walked up and tentatively said, “Hello?” 

A surprised blonde haired man jumped up to face him. He clutched at his heart and exclaimed, “Oh hello, you gave me quite the scare!”

Jongdae didn’t know what to say so he chuckled uncomfortably.

“Would you like help with anything? I’m the owner of the store.” The man said.

“Oh, so your name is Lee, like on the sign?” Jongdae asked.

“No, that’s actually my family name. You can call me Taemin.” he answered. 

Jongdae nodded, glad to have met someone whom he could potentially be friends with. He then remembered his question and asked, “Do you happen to have any Oreos?”

Taemin stared at him for a few seconds and then said, “You do realize this is an organic and vegan store?”

“Yes, I do realize that,” Jongdae answered, “I just thought I would ask since they’re my favorite.”

Taemin laughed and then patted him on the back.

“Let me ring those up for you,” he said as he took the basket out of Jongdae’s hand and started scanning the items. In a few minutes Jongdae had three bags in his hand and was ready to go home. Before leaving he turned around to see Taemin’s blonde head ducked over the boxes again, counting vigorously. He decided to leave him to his counting and left the building.

As Jongdae made his way home, a nice breeze swept a pile of delicate petals across the sidewalk and into the oncoming traffic. The weather was perfect for walking as the air wasn’t too humid. When Jongdae got home, he put the groceries away into the refrigerator, but not before thoroughly cleaning it out. He had no idea what could have been in there before. 

Aigo was still lying in the same exact place and it took Jongdae a couple tries before he succeeded in making Aigo stand. He then clicked Aigo’s leash in place and tried to lead him out the door. Aigo usually loved his daily walk, it was unusual for him to not want to go. It took Jongdae lots of haggling to get Aigo out the door and out the building, and the walk did not last long because Aigo didn’t want to move. 

Exhausted of trying to get the dog to move, Jongdae collapsed on his bed when he reached his apartment. He was worried about Aigo but decided he would see how the dog acted tomorrow. With nothing else to do, he decided to stop being a chicken and started unloading some items from the boxes in his living area. He spent the next couple hours slowly unloading his things and that night he laid in bed a very tired man. 

As he lay there and listened to the rustle and bustle of the city, even with Aigo snoring beside him, he couldn’t help but feel a little lonely.


	2. Chapter 2

BANG BANG!

“Yeah hold it right there!”

Jongdae cracked open one eye. Unless his mind was playing tricks on him, he could have sworn he heard something.

“Want me to move to the left some?” 

“No, move up so I can put it in.”

His mind was definitely not playing tricks on him. He pressed the home button on his phone to see what time it was, approximately 5:49 am. Normally Jongdae would have a reserve of patience for this kind of circumstance but with the stress from the move and his oddly acting dog, this was the wrong morning to mess with Jongdae’s sleep schedule. Throwing a shirt on, he strode out of the door and promptly knocked on his neighbor’s door. He heard a pair of feet scurrying up to the door.

Jongdae’s bottled up anger slowly deflated when the door swung open to reveal a tall man. He smiling widely, showing his white teeth. 

“Would you like to come in?” The man asked. He ushered Jongdae into the living room without waiting for an answer.

Jongdae had planned to give his neighbors a piece of his mind but at that moment his mouth made no noise, it just opened and closed like a fish. 

“Sorry for all the noise, that’s probably why you came over here, huh?” the man said.   
“Sehun, who was at the door?” a voice asked, and another man walked in from an adjacent room. His sleeves were rolled up and sweat was across his brow. 

Sehun turned to me, “I saw you when you were moving in the other day and I wanted to introduce myself but you looked a bit busy. What’s your name?”

With the incident from earlier completely forgotten, Jongdae happily introduced himself.

“My name’s Jongdae, and yours?”

“I’m Sehun and this is my boyfriend Jongin. The noise you heard earlier was us trying to put together a fan for our bedroom.” Sehun explained.

“Isn’t it pretty early in the morning to be doing something like that?” Jongdae asked, smiling.

Jongin let out a laugh, “For normal people, yes, but Sehun has insomnia so if he’s up then we’ll do all kinds of stuff. It was nice meeting you Jongdae, I hope you’ll come over sometime now that we’re acquainted. If you’ll excuse me, the fan isn’t going to build itself!”

After Jongin left there was sudden sound of little feet going pitter-patter, and a fluffy white dog ran into the room. He flung his front legs onto Jongdae’s legs and excitedly wagged his tail. 

“And this is our dear son Vivi.” Sehun introduced proudly, scooping Vivi off the ground and into his arms. 

“I have a dog as well! We should walk them together sometime. It would be nice for Aigo to have some company.” Jongdae suggested. 

“That would be nice!” Sehun exclaimed, “I haven’t seen him, does he stay in your apartment?”

“He loves to go on walks but since I’ve moved here he hasn’t wanted to leave my bedroom.” Jongdae said, obviously sad about the subject.

“You know, it’s just a suggestion but you could go have him checked at the local vet.” Sehun said, “I bring Vivi there for his check-ups. There are a couple vets there but I would have to say that mine is the best. When you call ask to book an appointment with Dr. Zhang.”

“Great, would you mind giving me their information?”

“Not at all, it’s all in the kitchen.” He placed Vivi down and made his way across the living room and through another doorway. Vivi followed him like it was his life’s mission. A tinge of sadness pierced Jongdae’s heart when he realized Aigo used to do that to him, but hasn’t lately.

Jongdae walked into the kitchen to see Sehun writing information down on a notepad for him. Jongdae looked around and realized the set-up of his own apartment, and Sehun and Jongin’s were nearly identical. It was easy to see the amount of style and hard work that was obviously put in to make the apartment more home-like. They replaced the old white blinds (the ones Jongdae currently had) with warm olive green curtains. The kitchen had white tiled floors like his own; the only difference was that in this apartment everything was clean and in order. 

Sehun tore off the notepad page and handed it to Jongdae. 

“Do you want to stay for a while? Jongin’s favorite soccer team is playing today so we’re having a couple friends over. You’re welcome to stay and meet them!” He said kindly. 

Although Jongdae was very tempted to stay, he knew he had his own responsibilities to take care of. 

“Thank you for offering, but I really have to get going.”

Sehun smiled and patted him on the back, “No worries, we can hang out another time,”

Walking him to the front door, Sehun chatted amiably about Vivi and his last adventure to the dog park. Jongdae opened the door and thanked Sehun. He walked over to his own door and Sehun peeked his head out and waved vigorously and said, “We’ll be more careful about making noise in the morning, see you around!” Jongdae smiled and waved back. 

✧✧✧

The sun finally set and Jongdae sat on the floor with Aigo. Aigo hadn’t done much but lay on the floor but Jongdae had a busy day. He unpacked more boxes and called to make Aigo an appointment at the vet’s office. He took Sehun’s advice and asked for Dr. Yixing.

Jongdae repeatedly ran his hand through Aigo’s fur and Aigo laid his head in Jongdae’s lap. For all the happiness in the world, Jongdae someone could help his dear Aigo.


End file.
